Everybody knows that one person who stays on the sidelines and behind the scenes, quietly doing their best day in and day out. They pick up loose garbage around your street. They never fail to show up at a community organization and complete the menial tasks with a smile on their face. Maybe they’ve done something that has had a positive impact on the city as a whole.
These unsung heroes are just the people that the city is looking for. It is now accepting nominations for Recognizing Our Amazing Residents (or ROAR), a program that takes its annual Unsung Heroes awards and expands its horizons a notch.
Sandyne Beach-McCutcheon, executive assistant with the mayor’s office, said that the decade-old program initially started to recognize people involved with community groups who would otherwise go unrecognized.
These are the people who might not be the president of the group, she clarified, but are those stalwart supporters who never fail to show up and continue helping “coming every week for years and years doing really great work.”
“What we’ve started to realize is that the definition of Unsung Heroes certainly goes beyond just people who are doing good work within the community groups,” she continued.
“We also had a program already in place called Good Neighbours where people had an opportunity to recognize a neighbour who had been doing great things for them. Now, we’re going to have several categories of Unsung Heroes.”
Recognizing Our Amazing Residents combines the existing Good Neighbours and Unsung Heroes programs under the Unsung Heroes name, while adding a new third category called Community Sparks.
“We see such a great range of ages and a variety of people, everything from the youth who is helping out in the library once a week and a senior who has been working with a community group for decades. We probably also have Unsung Heroes who are people that have done great things in a voluntary capacity that may have influenced St. Albert as a whole.”
The three categories include:
• Good Neighbours who help create connected, friendly and safe neighbourhoods;
• Community Volunteers who support the efforts of community organizations; and
• Community Sparks who have an overall positive impact on St. Albert.
Beach-McCutcheon noted that there is no vetting process, meaning that everyone who gets nominated gets recognized.
Nominations are open until Aug. 14. Every nominee will have her or his name entered into a draw for a unique “made in St. Albert” gift. The city will host a special event in September with all of the nominees and nominators.
More information can be found at www.stalbert.ca/roar.
